Gunpowder Park: A Case Study of Post-Industrial Reinhabitation

As urbanization increases, there is growing pressure upon derelict and
contaminated sites (i.e. brownfields) for new development. Creatively (re)considering
these post-industrial spaces is essential to ecological health. Ecology, as philosopher
Felix Guattari has observed, is not a simple equation but a complex of relations. As the
landscape plays a critical role in mediating the human-nature relationship, the
recomposition of our landscapes may enable a new quality of (postmodern, urban) life.
Just outside of Greater London, Gunpowder Park provides an example of a munitions
testing site that is now a park for arts, science, and nature. The new alliances developing
on this site stress an artistic perspective and thus gesture toward dwelling differently.
Synthesized from bioregionalism and Guattari' s ethico-aesthetic paradigm, reinhabitation
is developed as a place-engaged, politically-active, ethically-attentive, and aesthetically-inspired
lifestyle through which to take responsibility for our landscapes and seek new
relationships with ourselves and the world around us.

Description:

xi, 115 p. A print copy of this thesis is available through the UO Libraries. Search the library catalog for the location and call number.